It's the first few paragraphs of the article, with a few lines bolded to show how freakishly strong this young man is. Also, to emphasize that he's only been playing football for a year and hence was not recruited extensively.

FYI - I replied to a comment that was idiotic. I assume the mods deleted it, so it looks like I was bashing a comment that was completely understandable. Anyway, I'm not the type to make mean comments for no reason, even if it appears that I did so. C'est la vie.

I think this quote is incredibly important for more than just identifying Gary Yerden on a preferred walk on: the importance of resecuring the relationships with certain instate high school coaches that had frayed during the Rodriguez era. Remembering back to a thread from a few months ago regarding how ties to certain programs were neglected during the Rodriguez era, one of the coaches who was identified in that article was Schermerhorn. The general response, most notably from Magnus, was "who cares, Portage Northern isn't a Michigan pipeline so it doesn't matter if he's kept in the loop". I think this proves exactly how important it is to keep those coaches in the loop. Not necessarily because Portage Northern (or other programs with coaches formerly in the loop) is particularly likely to send players from their school to Michigan, but because these coaches are highly involved and "in the know" within their respective regions and having that connection with the Michigan coaches gives them a leg up on the competition.

Um, yeah, and they also lost to Appy State and Oregon earlier in the year. (Aside: It's amazing how one game can color people's perceptions of a whole era.)

There was a dry period (with Jake Long and David Baas as obvious exceptions) for O-linemen at Michigan after the 2000 (Hutchinson, Backus, Williams, Brandt) season, especially for a school famous for that position.

- - -

Of course, this gets away from the main point. As preferred walk-ons go, this guy sounds great. I bothered to speculate on his speed only because so many teams passed on him.

I don't think speed is why so many teams passed on him. In fact, I'm not sure anyone "passed" on him since almost no major programs even knew he existed. This is what happens when you play HS football for the first time 6 months before signing day and you don't send tapes to any major programs.

I'm singlehandedly turning this into a dead horse (sorry, everyone), but (from the article):

"Yerden had modest and passing interest from Division II schools Grand Valley State and Ferris State ..."

This implies that some type of evaluation was done by GVSU and Ferris. If they didn't pursue him, well, something wasn't encouraging. Maybe they were just risk-averse. Still hard to see how his size and strength couldn't be seen as positives, but whatever ...

This reminds me of the humongous linemen (whose name I can't recall ... 6'7" and 300 or so) from Illinois that was briefly interested in Michigan. Everyone was obsessed by his measurables but no one bothered to wonder why he didn't have any D-1 offers. He accepted a preferred walk-on position at OSU.

GVSU or Ferris were may have been considering using one of their schollies on him, thus they passed. There's really no risk here for Michigan. The guy will be a project but he's at a position of need and it's not like we're low on roster spots.

Yes, agreed. There is no downside to this situation, especially if he is a high-character individual.

I'm pumped. A 6-6 300+ lb. freakishly strong player that isn't using a scholarship until we can see him develop? Yes, please. Worst case scenario - he ends up being a weight-room rat and workout leader that pushes the other guys. Fine by me.

I'd like to offer a project or two each year like this. Be honest and upfront about the walk-on status and realistic about the chances of earning a schollie. Good pickup.

See dude in front of you. GO DEAD LIFT HIS ASS BACK TO HIS OWN SIDELINE!

Obviously with only one year of football under his belt he's raw but wouldn't that be something if this kid is athletic enough and coachable enough to turn into something. Very interesting.

"Michigan man or woman. To me, it's a great love for the University of Michigan. There's a selflessness there. It's what can you do for the University of Michigan, not what the Universtiy of Michigan can do for you." JH

I abasolutely agree, a raw prospect with his size and strength can only help the situation. The depth chart at tackle is too thin and I can't think of any costs of taking on a preferred walk-on beyond the coaches time in trying to develop a prospect that raw.

Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought. It always defeats order because it is better organized.

BOOM, Nice to have a Panther from the zoo on the field. Good luck young( hoooooooooooolllly sh#!, 6-6 330) Man child. They will miss you at Coney Island and Renzema's Bakery. Try to not kill any of the d-linemen, they are need..

This is awesome. I don't care if he only played one year of HS football, he has the frame and he obviously (obviously) has the strength needed for OT, he can learn the footwork and technique over a redshirt year and a year or two after that.

A lot of D1 linemen are really raw coming into college, so honestly a couple extra years of HS football isn't the much of a difference. However, not many come in weighing 330 and able to deal lift 630 pounds.

...but the linemen in 2008 and 2009 were considerably smaller than your typical Michigan lineman from the early 2000's. They got bigger in 2010 due to a (reported) decree from Rodriguez that the linemen add weight.

The 2009 team had a 5th year guy, a 4th year guy, a 3rd year guy, a 5th year guy, and a 4th year guy. So they might have been younger, but they weren't exactly young. And a difference of 26 pounds per guy, on average, is really large.

Couldn't start a thread so I decided to post here. I just got home from a restaurant here in Englewood,OH, where I live. A man says to me that RInger is committing to Michigan at the restaurant T.J Chumps either this Friday or next Friday. He also said coach Hoke would be there! Not sure if I totally believe him but he seemed pretty sure. If any of you live in the Dayton area I'll be there around 5. Annoucement is said to be around 6..I'll be there with a Woodson jersey to support him. Go Blue!

"im saying to myself should i do it should i not. I crossed the goaline and hey...fuck it" Desmond Howard on his Heisman pose

This is true. That's one reason I said I don't totally believe him. Having said that it is only a 3 hour drive. For all I know he could be on a recruiting visit.There is a few kids on Michigans radar that live near by...Bolden,the Centerville linebacker that I can't spell his name, to name a couple.

"im saying to myself should i do it should i not. I crossed the goaline and hey...fuck it" Desmond Howard on his Heisman pose

but hard to master and learn the technique that is required to be a really good offensive lineman. I think we should turn him to be a center or a guard i mean if you want to play manball up the middle nothing is better than having a guy who can dead lift 630 and could sit any DT other than Ndamukong Suh.

Nice to see this kid go blue. A lot of raw talent but plenty of strength I'd like to see some film from the only year that he played though. With that kind of strength and size, I am shocked he wasn't recruited any harder so I feel like we got a steal here. I don't think footwork or raw talent would be reasons why some teams didn't take a chance on him becuase like everyone says all O-lineman are raw talent at first. For that reason I wonder if he wasn't considering playing college ball until recently and didn't send film out to anyone. Moundros and other walk ons have made a significant impact on the field in the last few years and this kid seems to have all the character traits to be a true leader off it for sure. Does this change anyones mind that we need 6 offensive lineman in this recruiting class? I'm curious as to what everyone thinks.

I doubt it changes it. However - it makes it less necessary, so if we only have 5 guys we really l ike who want to commit and, say, a 4th linebacker who is a stud and wants to commit, we're able to do that a little more comfortably.

Also, by signing day the staff will know a lot more about who Gary Yerden is as a football player. If by December he looks like he'll be a major project (likely) then it shouldn't change our recruitment plan. But if after 6 months on campus this kid impresses more than expected (as in he's keeping up with the scholarship OL frreshmen), I could see the staff counting him as one of the six they intended to add.

I laughed since you saw where I was going with this with the 4th linebacker question. Ok, we are on the same page that is what I was thinking. I still would love 6 OLs but if we have 5 solid guys now and it was a mediocre OL or, say RJS or Ross, we could take the latter. I would definitely say this gives us quite a bit more flexibility since no matter what he is a body. Hopefully this kid can keep up with the other freshman OL recruits and turn out to be a real diamond in the rough.

Gary is not a slow, fat out of shape lineman. He has some athleticism. He played basketball too! He didn't play football growing up because his parents had religious beliefs that didn't encourge sports. He's raw. Coach Funk can mold this kid into a killer.

You can't teach someone to be 6'6'' and 330 lbs. He obviously has the strength needed. The kid has only played 1 year of organized ball. It will be exciting to see what quality coaching can do with a guy who already possesses those physical characteristics. At worst, he adds depth, at best he is a sleeper who develops into a usable lineman in a few years.

My son was a classmate and basketball teammate of Gary's at Parchment. I am not qualified to say how successful Gary could be as a football player at Michigan, but I can tell you he is a great young man and I am excited both for him and for U-M.

"This is the EMU game, not the emo game."

Most OL do, and someone with as little experience as this kid will for sure. To be honost, I highly doubt he ever really sees meaningful minutes at Michigan. I hope he can turn out great and play, but it's very difficult, regardless of size, to beat out people that have been playing their whole lives.

The most important thing is that this kid provides depth, particularly in practice. Still, I hope he proves me wrong.

Finally.... it finally comes full circle... I used to get so pissed at those here who would diss Gittleson to praise Barwis... and when Id tell them to show some respect, I'd get neg-bombed, and had to change my screenname.

I've experienced the same thing. The way some spoke of Gittleson was ridiculous, especially measuring his effectiveness by belly fat. Have these people ever looked at some of the OL in the NFL? It's all about strength and Gittleson was good at straight-line power training.

I wasn't one who negged people for not liking Barwis, but the reason this team lost against good teams did not begin or end with the S&C coach. That running attack last year was the best in UM history, and except against elite defenses held up pretty well. If anything, the defensive line needed to get bigger/stronger/better and, hopefully, that will happen this year. But I never put much real stock into what Barwis did except that lots of kids seemed to like him.

FB, we'd all like to get back to winning seasons, but let's not be silly.

Do you seriously want to return to a dark area of Michigan offensive lines? I'm not sure Andy Moeller was solely responsible, but in the years prior to RichRod's arrival a once-proud area of Michigan football decayed significantly. Oh, and don't say "ORK! Jake Long would like a word with you. HUH!" That's just one guy, FB.

To put it succinctly, separate the issues, 'k? Rodriguez had a lot of problems, but the offensive line (except, to be fair, for run blocking against upper-end defenses) was a relative bright spot. Did you see Omameh block on Denard's 87-yard run? Lewan "donkeying" people? Molk reach-blocking? Schilling probably playing his way into the NFL draft?

ahhh...ok.... so magnus, please go tell quinton washington to go back to the offensive side, where he was recruited. remember that? just get them in the door, then have them change positions if need be.

responded. This staff is about relationships. Hoke is right...we need this type of body ... if only to allow this team to scrimmage without wearing pennies. Walking on is not easy. Good luck Gary. I hope that scholarship is well earned.

"When it got down to the nitty gritty, we pounded it in there the old fashioned way and... um ... I like that."